BlueHost: Our Review

Whether you’re in the market for shared, virtual, or dedicated hosting, BlueHost has a hosting plan designed to meet your needs and budget.

Offering a few special features along with the standard suite of hosting options helps the company sets itself apart from peers with which it is otherwise consistent in price, options, and reliability.

Features

With three levels of hosting available, visitors to BlueHost are likely to find a plan that works for them, whether they’re hosting a simple blog or running a power-hungry eCommerce site serving thousands of customers.

Shared Hosting Features

Free domain (with purchase of annual plan)

Unlimited* domain hosting

Unlimited* subdomains

Unlimited* parked domains

Unlimited* disk storage

Unlimited* server transfer/bandwidth

POP3 and IMAP email support

Support for Microsoft® FrontPage™ extensions

Free 24/7, U.S.-based support

A plethora of “one-click install” scripts via Fantastico

SSL secure server

Multiple MySQL and Postgre SQL databases

E-commerce tools

Zen Cart

CubeCart

Free site certificate

Multimedia support (including streaming media)

Full support for:

PHP (PHP HyperText Preprocessor)

Perl

Python

Ruby on Rails

Javascript/DHTML

CGI-BIN

Flash/Shockwave

SSI (Server Side Include)

SSH (Secure Shell)

Please Note:As a rule, “unlimited” in the context of shared hosting generally denotes “limitless until you negatively impact server performance, at which point you may be billed or transferred to a more costly service tier.”

Other standouts include shared hosting account management via the popular cPanel hosting control panel, a template-based website builder, a complimentary backup service (a definite must-have in an age where files, content or even your whole site can be lost to the electronic ether during a mishap), and the company’s proprietary “True Resource Management” service.

True Resource Management is a monitoring service the company provides at no charge to its shared hosting customers. BlueHost monitors site activity for potential abuses of CPU, memory and storage (as well as surges caused by unforeseen traffic to another site, such as content going viral) and automatically adjusts resource allocation to ensure consistent performance for everyone on the server.

While monitoring like this is considered pretty standard for VPS and dedicated hosting plans, it’s a pleasant surprise on a low-cost shared hosting tier.

In addition to a more powerful server and greater control, VPS customers also get nearly all of the associated features that come with shared hosting, including the same 24/7 U.S.-based support and backup services (with the obvious exception of unlimited bandwidth and storage, as dictated by the VPS plan options).

Dedicated Hosting Features

Your own physical server, with:

Up to a quad-core Intel® Xeon™ processor, running at 3.3 GHz/second

Up to 16 GB of RAM

Up to 2 TB of storage space (two 1 TB drives)

Up to 15 TB of monthly traffic

Up to 5 dedicated IP addresses

Total root access for your server

Cloud-based optimization for greater flexibility and expandability

Enhanced caching for improved performance

Instant provisioning

Anytime storage upgrades for up to 2 TB of additional storage (fees apply)

Access to a special dedicated support line exclusively for customers on this tier.

Those who choose dedicated hosting pay a premium price for premium power and services. On top of total control over their hardware as well as software environments, dedicated hosting customers receive a real-time backup that mirrors their entire server to a redundant array of independent disks (RAID), minimizing downtime. Even if the entire server crashes, you’re back up in minutes instead of days. You’ll also have access to the same bevy of features offered to shared and (thanks to cloud optimization for physical as well as virtual servers) VPS customers.

All three tiers are covered by the same “no questions asked” money-back guarantee (prorated).

Benefits Breakdown

The Good

BlueHost has been around for nearly two decades, and is a staple of “top-ten hosting provider” lists across the Web.

Like many companies that started out with shared hosting and have expanded their offerings to include VPS and dedicated hosting, BlueHost offers a range of flexible and competitively-priced plans on all three levels. Their standard suite of applications and features gets top marks, and is definitely enhanced by round-the-clock, U.S.-based support and a very straightforward money-back guarantee.

At higher tiers, the company’s dedication to delivering on its promises via its Guaranteed Server Resources and powerful, flexible backup and expansion options mean that customers relying on that extra power and throughput can rest easy.

The True Resource Management service is a perk that will remain blessedly invisible to most shared hosting customers, but it does set BlueHost apart as a host bringing big-budget features to its most affordable plans.

The Not-So-Good

With shared hosting plans that start at around $4 a month, BlueHost plans are priced very competitively. But as you move into the VPS and dedicated tiers, you’ll need to evaluate your options carefully; at the upper end of things, the most powerful dedicated hosting plan with all the bells and whistles (including maxed-out additional storage) can cost well over $300 a month.